Olympia, WA - April 23, 2012 - At the 2012 Pacific Northwest Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán (MEChA) Regional Conference, chapter leaders voted to endorse the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions aimed at forcing Israel to meet its obligations under international law.  The Pacific Northwest MEChA Conference’s endorsement follows an endorsement made at the 2012 National MEChA Conference held in Phoenix, Arizona.

Editor’s note: Here is a copy of the recently released report by the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) Committee. It summarizes a recent meeting between Caterpillar and representatives of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Methodist Church. Both churches are considering whether to divest from Caterpillar. This report documents Caterpillar’s intransigence and unwillingness to compromise. Corporate engagement has not worked.

Dear Commissioners:

I wish you all well from the Holy Land and hope you have a fruitful 220th General Assembly.

I write you wearing two hats, that of an Ohio-born and educated American, and that of a Palestinian businessman who relocated with his family to his father’s birthplace, Al-Bireh/Ramallah, after the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords and who has lived under Israeli military occupation ever since.

I know that the Church has come under extreme pressure from the Israel lobby to invest in Palestine rather than to divest from American companies that are profiting from the violent Israeli military

Pension fund giant TIAA-CREF has removed Caterpillar, Inc. from its Social Choice Funds portfolio. As of May 1, 2012, financial data posted on TIAA-CREF’s website valued Social Choice Funds shares in Caterpillar at $72,943,861. Today it is zero.

“We applaud this decision,” said Rabbi Alissa Wise, Director of Campaigns at Jewish Voice for Peace and National Coordinator of the We Divest Campaign (www.wedivest.org).